[T-hawk]

> Why aren't Mexicans considered Americans, yet Germans are considered Europeans?

I think you know this, but that's just a quirk of the language, that there's no euphonious way to say "United Statesan" since "States" isn't really a proper noun as a place name. "American" is a least-bad option.

Also, there could be other "United States" entities in the world. The USA isn't the only example of that construct. The demonym for a resident of the Federated States of Micronesia is "Micronesian".

Besides, "American" would be a bit too broad in applying to two whole continents. Nobody lumps Germans and Japanese together under "Eurasians". A Mexican is a "North American", which along with "South American" is a perfectly serviceable term and carries just about the same amount of specificity and meaning as "European".

Yes, naming is important, but it's also important to go along with established convention for meaningful communication. "Startup" conveys the potential of shoot-to-the-moon growth and profit that isn't possible in an established large company, and your listeners will lose some of that connotation if you switch to simply "business".

[mc32]

And Mexican is the demonym for people from... The United States of Mexico.

Likewise, a New Yorker can be someone from the state of New York, or someone from the City of New York.

Besides. Geologically/geographically there isn't one huge American Continent. There are two land masses. The North American continent in which North Americans live and the South American continent where South Americans live.

In that respect it's like the Eurasian continent. No one from the European and Asian continents call themselves Eurasian. There is a term 'Eurasian' but that's for people of mixed heritage.

Basically, the parent poster is tilting at windmills.